{"id":191020,"date":"2016-12-14T13:54:52","date_gmt":"2016-12-14T11:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=191020"},"modified":"2016-12-14T13:56:06","modified_gmt":"2016-12-14T11:56:06","slug":"dstvs-express-from-the-us-balancing-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/191020-dstvs-express-from-the-us-balancing-act.html","title":{"rendered":"DStv’s Express from the US balancing act"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of alterations\u00a0it is making to address subscriber complaints about reruns<\/strong><\/a>, MultiChoice is considering making changes to Express from the US.<\/p>\n

Express from the US is a programme where certain DStv channels get the latest episodes of shows directly after they air in the US.<\/p>\n

DStv said it has expanded the programme to include more shows and that it is no longer limited to cable shows – it\u00a0now also includes network TV shows.<\/p>\n

However, bringing shows into South Africa as they air has caused scheduling problems and complaints from subscribers who are not aware that series take breaks over US holidays.<\/p>\n

MultiChoice said that in the US, viewers understand when they see reruns of an episode of a show in its usual timeslot it is because new episodes are coming soon.<\/p>\n

In South Africa, this is not the case – many viewers are surprised when they tune into a show to find a repeat, or something else being broadcast.<\/p>\n

This may cause ratings to drop, which is of concern to channel operators like M-Net.<\/p>\n

To address this, MultiChoice said it will improve education around shows going on “breaks”.<\/p>\n

It also considering making scheduling changes and altering the way Express from the US works to better align it with subscriber expectations.<\/p>\n

M-Net\u2019s channel director Jan du Plessis said that in comparing notes with overseas broadcasters like Foxtel in Australia, they saw similar issues around Express from the US.<\/p>\n

Foxtel has already started scaling back its Express from the US shows, said Du Plessis.<\/p>\n

They are considering taking similar action, waiting for enough episodes to air before starting to broadcast a season so that production breaks in the US don\u2019t interrupt their schedule in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Du Plessis said they are also looking at\u00a0putting shows on Catch Up as they air in the US and then broadcasting them on a channel later.<\/p>\n

MultiChoice said\u00a0in some cases this may complicate content licensing, though. They also face\u00a0the challenge that some subscribers think Catch Up is just another channel.<\/p>\n

It is something the company is working on and it\u00a0hopes to find a balance between various subscriber demands.<\/p>\n

Now read: This is why DStv can\u2019t let you choose your own channels<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MultiChoice is considering some changes to its Express from the US programme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":120244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[85,40132,31968,35,5016,475],"class_list":["post-191020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-dstv","tag-express-from-the-us","tag-foxtel","tag-headline","tag-m-net","tag-multichoice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191020"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191020"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191612,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191020\/revisions\/191612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}